Medieval Arab Cookery

With a foreword by Claudia Roden. Readers of Claudia Roden's
masterworks have long been aware of the continuities in Middle Eastern
cookery, others have been tantalized by the influence of Islamic cooking on
the medieval West, all will rejoice in this new gathering of papers and
documents relating to medieval Arab food and cookery. The French scholar,
Maxime Rodinson's contributions are legendary, yet have only been seen in
translation in Petits Propos Culinaires. We include those already published there, together with the
text of his longest paper, 'Recherches sur les documents Arabes relatifs a la cuisine', translated by
Barbara Yeomans. The American scholar Charles Perry has been entertaining
participants at the Oxford Symposium with regular gleanings from his
researches into medieval Arab cookery, and several of his papers are gathered
here, together with a new study of fish recipes, and other items previously
published in PPC. Subjects include grain foods of the early Turks, rotted
condiments, cooking pots, and Kitab
al-Tibakhah, a 15th-century cookery book. English
study of the subject was first encouraged by Professor Arberry's translation
of the 13th-century cookery book Kitab al-Tabikh, published in 1939 in the
periodical Islamic Culture. Readers will be pleased to have this more accessible copy,
together with an introductory note and revision by Charles Perry.